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TeleSUR vs. Satellite Dishes

An old-fashioned TV antenna projects from the window, but it’s just a masquerade, a simulation. The television signal actually comes through a cable running across several roofs and one street. The illegal tendon brings several families a selection of cartoons, soap operas and musicals for some ten convertible pesos a month (a little more than ten dollars U.S.). Only the owner of the satellite dish can decide what can be viewed at any moment. Remote control in hand, he has the power to change the channel and to decide what all the clients on his network will have access to. He avoids political topics to stay out of trouble, and favors reality shows. The final result is escapist TV, something to get away from the daily grind, a collection of little cultural value but a lot of fun.

As a rival to this “entrepreneur’s program schedule,” as of this Sunday, we have TeleSUR, the Venezuelan channel sent via satellite to Cuban State TV. For years Cubans have had access only to three hours of the programming offered by this multi-country channel. Now we will have 13 and a half hours of live broadcasts, with content ranging from the informative to the educational; from crime reporting to professional sports. A novelty, indeed, that won’t lack a big dose of ideology. TeleSUR takes after the productions of our Cuban Institute of Radio and Television in its broadcasting axiom: the ALBA countries are as close to paradise as the rest of the world is to hell.

Fortunately we don’t have to choose only among these two options. The “leaked” satellite TV or the biased vision of TeleSUR are not, today, our only choices. For months now the alternative market offerings have been widening, with collections that join documentaries and series. A kind of on-demand television, a programming for every taste, distributed on digital media such as hard drives and USB flash memories. If the national production doesn’t diversify and expand, it will lose a part of its audience to these new competitors. And it will end up being a collection of programs borrowed or pirated from other broadcasters, an overlapping of unattractive audiovisual material without its own personality.

125 thoughts on “TeleSUR vs. Satellite Dishes”

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The Man, do not forget who we are dealing here with: the ignorants from the usa. They are the last and the only country still living in the cold war era. Their paranoid fear feeds the irrational hatred against everyone who they do not understand.

That is why they shoot at each other every day. they are so confused and so unable to identify with anything that everyone on the street is an enemy. Hell, they have even laws that confirm and reinforce that paranoia: “patriotic” act, the latest “internet” act, the list is too long to mention here.

One day BBC is friendly propaganda outlet, the next is a socialist propaganda machinery.

It all depends on what they hear on fox, itn or cnn. And from Alex Jones… Yes, the black real estate lady is the nail into the eye to the team “yoani”. When I was in Cuba last September, I saw some ads in the newspapers that made me dizzy. Remembering that ONLY CUBANS can buy Cuban properties, I saw ads for properties with asking prices up to 1.2 MILLION Convertible Cuban Pesos.

And the did NOT last long either. There are many rich people in Cuba and many of them are NOT in the government or the party.

I have met quite a few through my host family there. The life in Cuba, as that inept copy and paste “genius” confirmed him/herself asome 18 months ago, is

G O O D

And those rich people understand that. And they are NOT for teh system change. Just for Castros to bow and leave.

Well actually I talked about this doc couple of months ago when I came back here… and was told off that it is BBC socialist propaganda… In the UK the BBC is known more for being a gay citadel not a socialist place..which should sit OK with the right-wing apologists here NOW.. they prefer gay to socialists as seen!…

Now can any of the apologist here tell me what is going to become of the guy who started a VIP burger joint that charges an arm and a leg for a burger, but that aside, what’s going to happen to his little happy burger shop… when American capitalism.. creeps in?? Oh yeah those market forces that kill the little guy and leave McDonalds after McDonalds in their wake…that no one talks about… that is the happy democracy Cuba will inherit cos it shouldn’t be built by any one in their right mind!

The best in the doc for my money… was the black woman from the countryside that came to Havana, she was saying that she is an estate agent now matching expensive property with rich clients…. that she has new shoes which she loves… She looked really happy and in tune with capitalism.. and thing my generation never had even after so much bs-communism that we had!

The documentary Damir, you watched is the same one I talked about a few days ago. It was shown on Australian TV so I guess you saw it here too. Once again you give yourself away where you live while pretending to live in Europe. The BBC reporter actually talked about the fear people have of their roofs falling in while they sleep, their houses collapsing, the dreadful conditions, the pathetic rations, the oppressive regime, the collapsed sugar industry, etc. etc.

The program you mentioned Damir is the one I talked about a few days ago. It was shown on Australian tv so I guess you watched the same program. He actually talked about the fear people have living in their slums, with the roofs falling in, the house collapsing while they sleep, the lousy rations, the general bad conditions, the oppressive regime, the collapsed sugar industry and on it went. Cuba is always ”
seductive” for tourists, sunshine, cheap cocktails, great music. This is not what Cubans live on. Once again, you give yourself away where you live, while pretending to live in Europe. Get over yourself.

Watched a documentary about Cuba on TV last night, Simon Reeves, filmed 2012. About how the food is great, how the country is in s swing of things and people are optimistic and happy, despite some problems still lingering. People proud of their country and happy.

Unlike the “documentaries” the “anonimous” “friendly translator” is watching in her dreams, this one is for real, and you can even find it on internet. Do yourself a favour and see how a british reporter, from BBC, not even knowing dismantles one lie after another the team “yoani” are pushing here, motivated with their delusional brainwashing ideology.

His own enthusiasm and surprise is infectuous. He’s a capitalist scum, but he was sincerely impressed with Cuba.

I liked especially his statements, in no particular order:

1. great food
2. WORLD CLASS MEDICAL SERVICES
3. people are free
4. positive changes
5. the most seductive country in the world (he started the BBC doco with this one)

Your time is over imperialist scum. Take your domestic raitor with you and leave.

I GET THE FEELING THAT THE NEXT CASTRO ON THE THRONE IS MARIELA, DAUGHTER OF RAUL CASTRO! SHE HAS BEEN TAKING A WORLD TOUR LATELY IN ODER THAT WORLD COMMUNITY GETS TO “KNOW” HER! WHAT DO YOU THINK The Man? Cuba Libre(La mentirita)??

THE ECONOMIST: “All talk” – The Cuban government fails to promote new leaders—even though hard times loom

RAÚL CASTRO, Cuba’s 81-year-old president, has long said his country should have a younger leadership. During the island’s most recent Communist Party congress he proposed ten-year term limits for future presidents. Rather pointedly, given that his brother Fidel served for 49 years, he called Cuba’s failure to groom a new political generation “an embarrassment”.

But Raúl has done little to promote political renewal either. During that same congress, he chose two ageing party veterans to fill vice-presidential positions. Most senior officials are still “históricos”, who fought with the Castro brothers before the 1959 revolution—originally known for the vigorous youth of its leaders.

But the meeting will also remind Cubans that some of the regime’s most familiar faces are leaving the stage. Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the Assembly for the past 20 years, will not attend—not because he is 75, but because of suspected tensions with Raúl. His assistant, Miguel Álvarez, was arrested last year and is being held on suspicion of corruption and spying. In 2008 a video of Mr Alarcón struggling in a question-and-answer session with students was leaked to the foreign press. His justification of Cuba’s travel restrictions—because more travel would lead to too many planes in the skies—was ridiculed.

Any young hopefuls might prefer to wait and see how the regime handles what could be the island’s hardest test since 1991. Hugo Chávez, the Castros’ closest ally, has spent the past month in Havana receiving treatment for cancer, missing his own inauguration for a third six-year term as Venezuela’s president. Cuba now gets almost all the oil it needs from Venezuela, in exchange for sending doctors.

Even while treating Mr Chávez, the Cubans may be looking at back-up plans in case he or his subsidies fail to survive. During the past few years, representatives of oil-rich nations have been generously feted in Havana. Sonangol, Angola’s state oil company, is exploring for oil and gas near the island’s shores. Lavish homes in the capital have been reserved for Angolan officials. In November Cuba awarded a contract to invest in and manage sugar production, which has long been off-limits to foreigners, to Brazil’s Odebrecht. The firm is also part of an $800m project to build a container port at Mariel, just outside Havana, and is looking at making ethanol.

You live in a country where, although you are desperately poor, which sucks, you are eligible for food bank programs, medical care through the Medicaid system, free vaccine programs for kids, free schooling because there is a public school program, and the right to a free attorney if you are accused of a crime.

OR

You live in a country where there are no medical programs and no vaccines available for your child, no free food banks therefore kids routinely starve to death, kids routinely die because of a lack of simple antibiotic and vaccines, there is no transportation to medical clinics, and there are no schools.

Cuba Libre said: “Humberto, can you show at least the minimum of compassion for a man who is leading the battle of his life?”

The Man!! IM JUST A MILD MANNERED EDITOR/EDUCATOR HERE DEAR! CAN YOU SHOW ME WHERE I HAVE WISHED THE DEATH OF HUGO CHAVEZ?? AWW, FORGET THAT IS YOUR ATTEMPT AT VILIFYING ME! I GET IT!! NOW FOR SOME CUBA AND CUBAN ISSUES! LETS SEE HOW QUICKLY THE ORDINARY CUBAN CITIZEN WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE WORLDWIDE WEB, BUT MOST IMPORTANT IS WHAT IT WILL COST THEM! HIGH PRICES ARE THE WAY THE CASTROFASCISTS TRY TO CONTROL AND CENSOR INFORMATION INTO THE ISLAND JAIL OF CUBA! ON THE UPSIDE, THE CASTROFASCISTS CANNOT BLAME THE “EMBARGO” ANYMORE FOR INTERNET ACCESS!

BBC NEWS: Cuba first high-speed internet connection activated – Cuba has been connected to the global internet for the first time with a high-speed cable, state telecoms company Etecsa says.
The company has already warned that high-speed browsing is unlikely to become widely accessible overnight.

Investments will first have to be made in Cuba’s infrastructure, Etecsa says, so that access can be increased “gradually” and for “social purposes”.

Government and research institutions are expected to be the first beneficiaries of the new connection.

Despite a number of obstacles and restrictions, a blogging community of both dissidents and government supporters is flourishing in Cuba.

Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez rose to prominence when she wrote about life in Cuba, emailing her blog entries to friends abroad to publish online.

Her writing led to her arrest in October last year as she prepared to cover the trial of politician Angel Carromero.

The high-speed Alba-1 cable is a joint project between the state-owned telecommunications companies of Venezuela and Cuba.

Although it arrived in in eastern Cuba in 2011, the state telecom company had kept quiet about it until now.

The government in Havana blamed the US trade embargo for preventing a link-up to existing American underwater cables.

THE CABLE IS WORKING, THE CABLE IS WORKING! THAT’S WHAT THE CUBAN PEOPLE ARE SHOUTING! BUT YOU KNOW THAT THEY WONT GET A PIECE OF THAT INTERNET PIE UNLESS THEY FORK OUT HALF A MONTH’S SALARY FOR ONE HOUR OF USE! AND THAT’S EVEN A “MAYBE”!! IN CUBA SOME PEOPLE ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS! AND The Man! THANKS FOR ALL THAT ATTENTION DEAR! LOVE YA!

MIAMI HERALD: Cuba confirms undersea cable carrying data traffic

HAVANA — Cuban government telecom ETECSA is confirming that the island’s first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world has been activated.

ETECSA says the ALBA-1 fiber-optic cable has been operational since last August and initially carried international voice calls.

A company statement published Thursday in state-run media says it has been used for tests of Internet traffic since Jan. 10.

ETECSA says more investment must be made in infrastructure to increase Internet access.

The ALBA-1 arrived on the island from Venezuela in February 2011. But officials soon fell silent about the cable amid rumors about mismanagement and corruption involving the project.

Its status was unknown until this week, when U.S. Internet analysis firm Renesys reported faster data traffic to Cuba and concluded that the cable had been switched on.

Cuba Libre @108… unless you would be talking the long line of Pinochets, Batistas right-wing dictators and their sponsors, don’t expect any sympathy from a right wing apologist parrot like Humberto..

He cannot see beyond his right-wing rhetoric which dictates that enemies are bad and ugly so they deserve whatever and he is the good and pretty and nice one… Humberto cannot even recognize what is an American law…ie the Cuban Act… let alone to recognise democracy in places they want petrol from or where a man alleviated poverty and shifted the balance of power and survived at least a sonsored coup.

Most right winger cannot see that poverty is poverty everywhere … Ghana Cuba and USA poverty has the same effect face and consequences in its extreme … apparently if you could watch American tv in North Korea you would be less poor…

By the very same token that “the man” complains that others should not be told what to think, he tries to impose his worldview on what he thinks Yoani should do, should address, should write about, what she doesn’t do enough of, who she is associated with, where is her husband (WTF?), etc.

Who are you to judge what Yoani’s objectives should be? She started a blog to write about what HER LIFE in Cuba is like. She doesn’t have to answer to you about what she should be doing and how she should be doing it. Get over yourself.

You obviously have an agenda that she does not, so what? And stop whining about everyone’s voices being shut down here. Absolutely no one keeps anyone else from posting here. Everyone here must endure the most vile and insane invective from the most ignorant of posters here. It’s called free speech, something that they don’t have in Cuba.

Admit it, you love to come here and spar with those who do not necessarily agree with you. You insincerely ask people not to comment on your posts, when you constantly do that very thing to try to prove your “moral superiority.”

Great to know there is a committee of ‘elders’ that gives ‘awards’ @103… how much more American this blog can be than to mention ‘an award’ for something… So there we have open confirmation and collusion there is clique here that capitalises on meaning and what we should do and say here – which was long evident…

Pity that others as seen time an again feel discouraged to comment and drop out very quickly – people of other nationalities I mean and people of other mentality than this clique proposes… And a very self-serving mentality it is nothing is more self deluded than an American who is ‘called to be’ the policeman of the world since other are not worthy…!!! We’ve seen it a lot and it seem that the ‘Americanly correct’ police is working under cover here tooo… No nicks but lots of ethos in distorting other opinions.. Probably so, 2 or 4 or these quarter-anonimos can put together a word that the ‘elders’ approve of…The other alternative is to get mileage on the browser scroll looking at what the Humberto parroted daily from the US media.

Since normal Cubans in Cuba apparently cannot comment on this blog though they could have benefited from true anonimity …and though the same BBC film quoted @100 showed they even do rap in Cuba on good computers that are connected to the world and America … not to mention private initiative is on the rise both in the countryside and city… I would have appreciated comments from recent Cuban migrants to the US… but those guys do not comment here… probably they work very long hours or cannot be bothered since they know what the ‘elder’ Americans are up to… being apologist for their past shady deeds…and apologists for their hatred… More so I would have appreciated comments from Cuban that live in South America… and do have Internet access and freedom to speak and freedom ‘to give the system away’. Evidently they are discouraged too to comment here and engage! Which all in all proves other and more in touch Cubans – than the ones here – do see things differently.

I didn’t start here with idea that MsY is wrong in her quest… I actually thought she was a step in the right direction however a step that is used and propped by the West. The American clique here that stops everyone ‘different in their views’ from saying what they feel believe think and expect have convinced me that many fold…

MsY’s position is as corruptible if not as corrupt as Cuban gov and sustained by very little in terms of valid objectives, true reconciliation, and a good opportunity to address inequality in Cuba in an effective way… As a small example I am also sure if ‘gun crime’ existed in Cuba… MsY would have deplored it a lot as the regime’s fault.. In 1 year here MsY posted 1 and only 1 item related to violent death in Cuba… as opposed to the USA where I can set my clock on how often a violent shooting occurs… Guantanamo being on Cuban soil is another topic forever forgotten by MsY… So implicitly if not explicitly MsY is doing her best to avoid controversy in the West and refrains from exposing what is unjust and fits a larger pattern that extends beyond her island..

So I thank the ‘elder clique’ for putting me down for an award … if nothing else it comes from cheap people – cheap in methods and purpose…ie. people who do not put their mouths where their ’cause’ is but are keen to stop others from thinking and saying what they thing… When you get some rum and cigars at least… do consider me… until then stay withing your avarice where you have forgotten what Cuban hospitality is…

In case I am not here next year when you vote again and if you decide to get sum Cuban rum and cigars to the winner… and in case I win …please print this speech again.. I dare you..since I am sure it will still stand true!!

Cuba Libre, you have to be kidding. I’ve checked out your Princessa del Mar at Varadero on their website and google earth. It’s a pretty fancy place by anyone’s standards, several hundred dollars a night. And this is the “Cuban way of life” is it? I hope you think of them while you’re lying on your sun lounge by the pool and stuffing your face with food the locals can only dream about. Do not tell us again about the “stress free life in Cuba”.

THE CHAVISTAS FASCISTAS ARE EITHER GETTING READY TO FRAME SOME IN THE OPPOSITION TO GET THEM OUT OF THE WAY OR PLAYING THE BOOGIEMAN, BAD OLD U.S.A. CARD OR BOTH! OR JUST PLAIN DOING IT TO SHIFT FOCUS FROM THE FACT THAT THEY CANNOT PROVIDE VIDEOS OF HUGO CHAVEZ RECUPERATING THAT THE WORLD WILL BELIEVE!

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s vice president said Wednesday that the government has uncovered a plot to attack him or another senior leader of President Hugo Chavez’s party.

The purported plot involved “groups that have infiltrated the country,” Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a speech to government supporters. He added that the authorities believe the unidentified groups intended to attack him or National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and then “try to blame one or the other.”

After announcing the alleged plot, Maduro traveled to Cuba to see the ailing Chavez, who underwent cancer surgery more than six weeks ago. Cuban state television showed Maduro arriving in Havana on Wednesday night and being greeted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

In a speech to supporters in Caracas on Wednesday afternoon, Maduro didn’t provide any evidence of the plot or say what sort of attacks the authorities believed to have been planned. The vice president also didn’t mention any arrests, but said: “Don’t be surprised by the actions that will be taken in the coming days.”

A large contingent of police and troops with rifles stood guard while Maduro spoke at an outdoor rally.

Yes, the recipients of this year’s awards well deserve the recognition. They’ve earned it. The committee struggled with what to do with _man comes around_, but decided to defer the decision till next year. Not that he hasn’t impressed us by reaching the same depths of absolute nonsense as the other candidates. The committee wants to see if he can do any worse. It’s become a race to the bottom and no one knows where it will end.

How about that admission by Damir that he works for a multinational corporation?! Hence his super powers that allow him to track the IP addresses of everyone who posts here. Damir is a closet capitalist working for a multinational corporation. He declared it with such pride!

Here’s what he said at #81:

“My ability comes from the work I do for a multinational company thagt [sic] also gathers the data on teh [sic] net and runs a number of analysing [sic] programs through the data in order to create marketing strategies and plans for its’ clients.”

Really? Marketing strategies and plans for clients? Damir, forgive me, but that sounds really capitalistic. You take advantage of information other people don’t readily have to exploit the masses of workers who are toiling away earning an honest wage so you can take it from them, just because you know how to “create marketing strategies and plans for [your] clients.”

Damir, when are you moving to Cuba to introduce some of your pragmatic capitalism there?

Watched a BBC documentary last night on TV on Cuba. Much talk about people living in fear of their houses collapsing, the roofs falling in while they sleep, the pathetic rations, the poor quality of food, the oppressive regime etc. etc. etc. But according to Cuba Libre it’s a wonderful way of life.

And Damir, you mor.n, there are several anonimos here and it’s so much fun watching you get all het up trying to figure out who is who. LOL.